Cook&Count2 launches at Diabetes Professional Care 2016

It was great to meet a wide range of healthcare professionals all interested in diabetes care. And we heard talks and discussions on some controversial topics in the diabetes health world. We met current users and fans of the app, those interested to learn more, and other young businesses working to improve healthcare in the diabetes space.

Digital health tech for diabetes

Diabetes specialist consultant Partha Kar talked about the need for digital health tech in supporting those with diabetes. He emphasised the impossibility of random clinical trials in this area, with technology moving so fast that new digital solutions are obsolete by the time full scale NHS trials are complete. Partha believes anything that’s useful to patients is worth recommending – something we completely agree with.

Low carb vs low fat

There was a lot of promotion of low carb diets for those with diabetes. This included a particularly lively panel discussion made up of GP Ian Lake (who uses a very low carb diet as part of his own type 1 diabetes management), Trudi Deakin (X-PERT Health) and Arjun Panesar (Co-founder of Diabetes.co.uk). All of the panel members were fighting in the high fat, low carb corner.

Here at Health Apps we’ve always promoted a balanced diet, including lots of vegetables – particularly leafy green ones – and reducing sugar intake. While we can see the benefits of a low carb eating plan for many people, it’s not something we necessarily promote ourselves. We want to wait until there’s more long-term evidence into its efficacy. And as Trudi says, everyone is different, so get some tailored advice from a medical professional.

Take home messages for Cook&Count2

We discovered that future versions of Cook&Count could be better adapted for different cultural groups (the UK government database is missing a few popular Asian and African ingredients!), discussed specialist and guest cookbook opportunities, and explored further how Cook&Count could be linked with other health and fitness tracking apps.

All in all we received lots of positive feedback and are looking forward to our next opportunity to share Cook&Count2! Click here to head to the App Store to take a look for yourself.